3800’s - Looks like a block could be inserted between the MAF and throttle plates? Not sure how the computer would respond if the throttle/TPS or MAF are not used. Base timing is from the dual crankshaft position sensor (18x-3x) and ignition module but receives the advance signal from the computer. It can run in ‘module mode’ with the computer disconnected, but timing is static at 10 deg btdc. The old series engines I believe only use the camshaft sensor to calculate sequential fuel injection. CTS, MAT, MAF, TPS, VSS, knock sensor also determines ign advance in EST mode. I think I remember someone talking about not dry firing injectors - and putting a relay on the common power/gnd leg, fuel pump, and a shut off valve/solenoid in the fuel line to prevent fuel bleeding with the intake under vacuum. William 
i was running a 3.1 1996 GM engine on wood gas. I was running it without the Maf sensor in place but everything else still on. The car ran like crap on gasoline with the maf sensor out of the air stream but then when wood gas was entered in it smoothed out nicely and ran just as it should.
I would start the engine on gas and have to keep revving it to keep it running without the maf. Then I would bleed the woodgas in and once it was getting to rich I would pull the fuel pump fuse. The engine would keep running and need more oxygen. Then when I would pull the injector fuse the engine would need more oxygen yet. You could definitely tell if the injector fuse was pulled out or not by how the engine was running. This was mostly at idle and I’m sure it would affect it more if you were putting a large load on it.
Just my experience. I know a lot of people are running through the maf or air flow sensors and it is not affecting anything. Just make sure there isn’t tar and you should be good.
meschke
Well I think Im going to give it try. Now I just have to find the time to do it. Doing this for the first time I think I would rather avoid going throught the MAF. But It sounds like I could put an interuptor in this switch. So I think I see this working. If I inject the gas after the throutle body I could use the throtle body to meter the air just as it is decigned to do and then I would just need to create a valve manifold for the woodgas after the throtle body.
This manifold will have two valves in it one for metering and one for switching off the producer gas. Ill get a few relays to switch the fuel pump, injectors and the MAF sensor off when running on woodgas.
Thanks for the help guys this will be my first vehical install. Running a little engine is easy but it looks pretty involved to run a car. For my cooler Im going to design a new one that will be fan cooled.
Ive gone through and completely redesigned our M-Series I gasifier. We’ve made many improvements to this machine, it has grown an inch bigger, the reduction bell is now riveted in, the standard hopper has almost doubled in size, and the condensate troft has grown a bit too.
So I now have question, before our condensate troft was built into our lids and now since the lid is redesigned I had to move it into the hopper. Any suggestions for keeping debris from getting in it when refilling the hopper?
See pic bellow
I received an email today regarding a business venture in China. Im going to keep the email confidential, but here are some of the generators they want me to power. They are pretty intimidating, they look like they are diesel too.
Careful MattR.
Yep. The first is a V-10 or V-12 with water cooled exhaust manifolds.
The second an inline six cylinder. Both turbocharged. Yep. Probably both 4-cycle diesels - no evidence of any ignition systems.
The Indians have given up on dual fueling diesel-sets. They only now have Cummins-India and Practash supply spark converted engine gen-sets now. Natural and turbo aspirated. That’s not the problem.
Most Asian fuel sources are rice husk and loose different Ag and palm wastes. These are all high silica, low temp melting ash fuels.
NOT something for a high temperature/high turbulence system with a grate like the first generation of Imbert varient late 70’s/early 80’s Mukunda systems. These fuels problems were why the evolution to the 3rd generation IISc/DASAG/Mukunda systems.
This is all in the “India Papers” links ChrisKY put up in the Resources/Links/PDF sections.
The Chinese gasifier researchers/developers been trying to crack this fuel problem for 30 years. Their “rice husk fueled” systems shipped and set up into SE Asia have very severe problems - all FUEL based.
Regards
Steve Unruh
hehe, Yeah I did respond with an offering of a more scaled down version 20 kW version that could get things started. They do build smaller stuff to.
understand, if you build them one that works, there is a good chance they will reverse engineer it and have it produced over there… that is typical Chinese practice
Yeah I think we are better off building our own system. I have a few engines Id like to explore, one is the Kobota and the other is a twin cyl. Honda.
Hi Matt New here I am whole house generator installer and looking for good gasifier for home generators can you help me? They are l/p or nat gas and would really be interested to see what you have!!
Thanks TOM
Hi Tom,
This is the proto type 2 kW unit we are working on. They only going to get bigger from here and the larger versions will feature CHP Systems.
Would one of them run 14hp motor for generator? And How much are they?
Hi Tom,
This system comes with the engine. We are trying to get away from off the shelf generators, they simply are not designed to run on wood gas. They are designed to run on gasoline or what ever the manufacture has designed them to run on. This system we are working on is a 2 kW DC system and we are using a power inverter to convert to AC. The system has an on board battery bank. We should have the machine ready for testing in the next few weeks.
We will then start a larger version of this machine that will generate 5 kW DC. It will just be a scaled up version of the 2kW proto we are working on. Then we are going to get into larger CHP systems using liquid cooled kohler engine and also GM Vortec industrial natural gas engines. We are currently working with some investors to obtain the funding to create and develop these larger machines. They will range in size from 10 kW all the way up to 150kW units.
The last photo is our ES-II gasifier with integrated heat recirculation. This is the machine we are planning on using for the 5kW system. We can build you just the gasifier too. Just let us know what you want to run and well build it for you.
If you would like to contact me you can go to our website and fill out the contact form or contact me through the forum. Our website is vulcangasifier.com
Hey Matt,
Nice lookin unit you have there!!!
I don’t have much experience with small gensets. I was wondering what problems you found with off the shelf generators? Aside from that they are just not designed
for woodgas what would be the reason for building from scratch rather than trying to modify an existing gasoline generator?
Sean
Consistency is the biggest problem. The AC generators need to run at a certain RPM to maintain the right frequencies. A gasifier will run one but in my case never consistent enough. The rpm range is all over the place. Another issue is the power loss, so just like with the Dakotas you want a big engine on a smaller gen head. A 4000 watt generator running on wood gas is now a 2000 watt generator that you will constantly need to baby sit. Some of the newer generators have systems that will put them into a shut down mode if the right rpm is not met. So if you are pushing the generator to the edge of what it can produce on wood gas that can be an issue. By using a self regulating DC gen head with an engine sized right, the rpm is no longer an issue and then charging into a battery bank the power will be more consistent. Power surging is also less of an issue, the battery bank should absorb this. If there still is an issue you can put a supper cap in place to absorb load surging.
By us designing the complete system this eliminates a lot of issues.
Matt, I know my comments have no weight here, but I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with the decision to run a battery/inverter system vs. ac generator head. I can list a half dozen very good reasons why this decision is best. In fact, I will:
- More efficient on net balance because constant speed gas gensets with ac heads operate at a low part load the majority of the time in most cases. The efficiency is absurdly low under these conditions. There is a lot of room to optimize efficiency with what you’re doing.
- Longer lasting because the engine speed can be a lot lower (and because of 3).
- Cleaner gas because the gasifier can be optimized for a constant load.
- Lower cost because one doesn’t need the massive engine and gen head required for peak power requirements. Let the inverter do it, and inverters are getting better and cheaper by the year.
- More reliable because of 2, 3, and because run times can be reduced by limiting the system to bulk charging of batteries.
- More marketable because most of your future customers are likely off gridders who already have batteries and inverters. They would very much like a system optimized for bulk battery charging at a constant rate.
Hi All
Well I do have quite a few AC generation woodgas fueled hours on five different AC package gen-sets. Real PITA for all of the reasons MattR and MattG have listed out. I finally voted for variable speed, variable load DC genration - battery surge load storge - inverter/converter load supping with MY pocket book moneys.
Picures are of my 2.5 kW Trace inverter (+90% efficient) and five commercial Redi-Line rotory converters 500 and 1600 watt. These are “only” 70% efficent. The “waste” heats off of these, as all my system waste heats, to be used to pre-condition the winter wet picked up fuel woods.
Regards
Steve Unruh
Hi Matt checked out your site and your gasifiers only run on wood pellets? Also the m1 would bw about what I am looking for to start to play around with. Thanks for showing me your site and lookjng forward to talk more on the m1.
TOM
Hi Tom,
No some of the gasifiers are offered as small fuels gasifiers and others are large fuels such as chips and chunks. We can set up the M-1 to run chips; however, run times will be short and bridging can be an issue with the smaller gasifiers. The original design intent for the M-1 was to build a simple gasifier that would be the equivalent of the 1 gallon fuel tank most small engines come with. This gasifier was designed originally to run pellets, but later I did experiment with chips running our JD lawn tractor and it did very well. But like I said run times were short. I could only get about 45 min out of a hopper of chips running the 8 hp engine on this tractor.
The M-II would be a better machine if you would rather run chips instead of pellets. We can put what ever size reduction cone in it and proper jetting to fit your application. We also offer our ES-II machine this machine has heat recirculation with a wide open hearth, chips flow very well through this machine. This machine has a second intake air port for injecting preheated air from waist exhaust heat.
Questions from the uninformed:
I’m quite new to this concept so please excuse my ignorance - I’ve been doing a lot of research the past few weeks on gasification technology and its potential uses and I really am impressed with what I’ve seen at your website Matt. I am gathering information on what components would needed to construct a CHP system for a small to medium sized home. I’ve seen that you plan to launch such a system/systems on your website and I was hoping that perhaps some questions I have about the applications of gasification could be answered.
From what I’ve researched, a gasifier boiler can run on split logs but doesn’t accomplish anything beyond heating a home, however stand-alone gasifiers and gasifiers with gensets by and large run on pellets or wood-chips. Can a gasifier genset run on split logs for fuel?
With the newer back-up generators available these days one could set up a DC-generator to charge a bank or banks of batteries to run an entire house while only needing to run intermittently however without an available fuel supply 24/7 things get complicated. Can wood-gas be stored long-term to be usable on-demand in such an application?
If wood-gas CAN be stored could it be used with in-door cooking applications such as a natural gas or propane range/oven? I ask this based on the purported use of wood-gas with generators burning such fuels.
As you see I am still figuring out what the boundaries are with regards to this technology, any responses are much appreciated!
Stephen